North Carolina coach Hubert Davis’s impressive April included an improbable national title game appearance and a commitment from arguably the top player in the 2023 class in G.G. Jackson.
The latter is the beginning of a new trend, if you ask Jackson, but the irony is that landing one-and-done talent like him produces more of the former, at least in theory.
“I really believe that this is North Carolina’s time to get a lot of the top-top guys,” Jackson says. “Coach Davis just brings a fresh energy that’s gonna attract guys. I think a lot of the guys that people see as one-and-done are gonna start picking UNC again. Just watch.”
North Carolina is no stranger to reeling in preplanned one-and-done talent, most recently Cole Anthony in 2019, but selling produce-to-pro as opposed to pointing out how your system transformed a perceived multiyear player into a one-and-done prospect rings differently for teenagers and their families.
Jackson picked North Carolina over Duke, Auburn, Georgetown, Overtime Elite Professional League and South Carolina, even after being in awe of Mike Krzyzewski during a visit to the point that it literally affected him physically.
“My hands were actually shaking when he was talking to the team in the locker room,” Jackson says of Krzyzewski. “He’s a legend, no doubt. But North Carolina was the place for me, that just became more and more clear as the season went on.”
The culprit?
Davis’s four-out system, opting for a marksman of a stretch-forward over a traditional paint-dwelling second big, made for a more modern, NBA style of play.
Jon Lopez/Nike
Seth Trimble said that modification made the Tar Heels even more attractive to top players.
Trimble, a point guard who is ranked No. 32 in the SI99, is one-third of North Carolina’s stellar 2022 haul, which checks in at No. 10 in SI All-American team rankings.
“Just to be able to see the freedom that the guys have at all five positions is something that players are looking for,” said Trimble, who will enroll at North Carolina this summer. “You want to be in a system where you can showcase your game and be able to play off your instincts within the system. That’s all that you can really ask for.”
Makes sense why Jackson, a 6'8" all-everything big with the ability to dominate the game in a variety of different ways on the offensive end, felt compelled to bring his talents to Chapel Hill.
His point on the potential domino effect is well taken.
The larger win in his commitment is from an image standpoint; landing Jackson makes Davis and the Tar Heels more attractive to one-and-done talent and gives him a better chance of competing against fellow bluebloods like Duke and Kentucky for said talent in a way North Carolina hasn’t done consistently in the past. The Blue Devils and the Wildcats have been the rulers of the one-and-done market over the last decade and beyond.
Making up this sort of ground in Year 1 speaks to Davis’s impact as a recruiter, the lifeblood of any program looking to compete for national titles. His presence as a recruiter has always been formidable in his innate ability to connect with players and their families emotionally.
“He’s a guy that you just click with instantly,” Jackson says. “Guys tend to want to follow people’s success. They were successful last year and I committed. I feel like I’ll have a lot of success next year and I know that guys in my position will look at me and think the same thing I thought. That’s just how we think.”
Bob Donnan-USA TODAY Sports
Davis played a major role in landing each of his three signees in the 2022 class, and was the primary reason the Tar Heels’ ’23 class of Jackson and Simeon Wilcher, a consensus top-20 prospect, sit just behind Duke at No. 2 in the current team recruiting rankings.
“I can talk about this place because I love it,” Davis told Sports Illustrated last year regarding his love of recruiting. “I can talk about this place because I’ve lived it and I’ve experienced it. One of the things that I love about the coaching staff that we have here is that all the coaches here, every one of them, went to school here, played basketball here and all of our wives went to school here.
“I don’t think there’s a staff in the country that has that, so when we’re talking to recruits and we’re talking to families and we’re talking about what this place can mean to them we actually know what we’re talking about. Our love and appreciation for this place speaks in the way that we communicate with them.”
That message certainly resonated with Jackson and he’s confident that he’s the first projected one-and-done domino that will start a tidal wave for Davis over the next few years.
“There are gonna be a lot of guys like me coming to Chapel Hill, so get ready for that,” Jackson says. “I know a lot of guys are talking about it more and more, and Coach Davis showed the world what he’s capable of. The bottom line is that everyone wants to have success, and guys trust in the system, but they really trust in him.”
